PART II. from the Danites that possessed it. It was afterwards named in the times of the New Testament, Cæsarea Philippi, and has been spoken of before.

22. Of the camp of Dan.

23.

Of Tim

nath.

24.

The camp of Dan, ch. xiii. ver. 25. is the same place with Mahaneh-dan, ch. xviii. ver. 12. the former being only the latter expressed in English. It was so called from the Danites encamping here, in their expedition against Laish; and it was situated near Kirjath-jearim in Judah, as we are expressly told, ch. xviii. ver. 12. Of Kirjathjearim we shall speak in the next chapter.

Timnath is remarkable for Sampson's falling in love with a woman of that place. It is not improbably thought to be the same that is Josh. xv. 10. called Timnah, and Josh. xix. 43. Timnatha. It was first assigned to the tribe of Judah, but afterwards to the tribe of Dan. Hither it probably was, that Judah, the patriarch of the tribe of Judah, went up to his sheep-shearers, Gen. xxxviii. 12. In Eusebius and Jerom's days there was a great town, named Thamna, lying in the borders of Diospolis, towards Jerusalem. But this seems to have been rather Timnathheres, the city of Joshua.

Another woman beloved by Sampson was Delilah, Of Sorek. whose name, on account of her treacherous behaviour to Sampson, is become proverbial. She lived in the valley of Sorek, chap. xvi. ver. 4. There was in the time of Eusebius and Jerom a town called Caphar-Sorek, (i. e. the town of Sorek,) on the north of Eleutheropolis, near Zorah, where Sampson was born. What we render the valley of Sorek is rendered by others the brook of Sorek. The other places mentioned in the history of Sampson are such as are only there mentioned, and of which nothing of certainty can be had as to their situation, except the cities of Gaza and Ashkelon; of which I shall speak when I come to treat of the five lordships of the Philistines.

25.

The next place here to be spoken of is Ramah, menOf Ramah, tioned in the story of the Levite, whose concubine was abused at Gibeah. For this Levite setting out in the evening from Bethlehem-Judah, when he was come by

Jebus, or Jerusalem, would not go thither to lodge all CHAP. VI. night, but said to his servant, Come and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramoth, chap. xix. ver. 13. From this text it is evident, that these two places were at no great distance from Jebus, or from one another. We are told by Eusebius and Jerom, that Ramah lay six miles to the north of Jerusalem, overagainst Bethel. And Josephus (Antiq. viii. c. 6.) makes the city Ramathon to be distant forty furlongs from Jerusalem, which agrees pretty well with the distance assigned by the two other writers. This is supposed to be the Ramah mentioned in the New Testament out of Jeremy, in reference to the murder of the infants about Bethlehem. And it is styled by Eusebius and Jerom Ramah, the city of Saul, probably as lying near to Gibeah, of which I shall speak when I come to the history of Saul; as also of Mizpeh and Jabesh-Gilead. The other places that occur in the history of the Levite, and the fight between the Benjamites and other Israelites, are of uncertain position, being either mentioned there only, or so little said of them elsewhere, as to give no good light in the matter. There is indeed mention, Josh. xv. 32. of Rimmon, a city in the tribe of Judah, and 1 Chron. vi. 77. of another Rimmon in the tribe of Zebulun; but it is not likely that the rock Rimmon, to which the remainder of the Benjamites betook themselves, was so called, as lying near either of these.

26.

Of places mentioned

In the history of Ruth there occur, I think, only two names of places, viz. Moab, the name of a country so called, and already spoken of; and Bethlehem-Judah, in the book which has also been spoken of in the New Testament al- of Ruth. ready, of which somewhat more will be said, as we go along the history of David, in the second Volume.

A

CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

SACRED HISTORY

Contained in the Books of

EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY, JOSHUA, JUDGES, AND RUTH,

Described, together with the general Chronology of part of Genesis, of the two Books of Samuel, and part of the first Book of Kings, in Two TABLES.

The first is a CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of the Sojourning of the Children of Israel, and their Fathers, in the Land of Canaan, and in the Land of Egypt, containing the space of four hundred and thirty years, Exod. xii. 40. The second is a CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of the interval from the Exodus to the beginning of the Building of Solomon's Temple, containing the space of four hundred and fourscore years, 1 Kings vi. 1.